SABR Biographical Committee Find of the Month: Ri Jones
Excerpted from the July/August Biographical Research Committee Newsletter
This is an amazing find. A player we knew only as Ryerson L. Jones (also known as Ri Jones) played for Louisville in 1883 and Cincinnati in the Union Association in 1884. We knew little about him other than he later worked for the railroad and he was from the Cincinnati area. We also knew he played with Springfield in the minor leagues in 1883.
Excerpted from the July/August Biographical Research Committee Newsletter
This is an amazing find. A player we knew only as Ryerson L. Jones (also known as Ri Jones) played for Louisville in 1883 and Cincinnati in the Union Association in 1884. We knew little about him other than he later worked for the railroad and he was from the Cincinnati area. We also knew he played with Springfield in the minor leagues in 1883. We had never been able to locate him in any census and it appeared we would never find him.
SABR member Richard Malatzky was trying to find information on him and decided to try looking for L. Ryerson Jones rather than Ryerson L. Jones. He came across the name Uriah L. Jones and decided to trace him. Uriah Jones was listed in the census all the way up to 1930 when he was living in Fresno. Fortunately, the Fresno Bee is available in the Newspaper Archive. One simple search turned up a 1931 interview with Uriah L. Jones. The article said that he played with Springfield in the minor leagues, Louisville, and Cincinnati when it was in an outlaw league. He also worked for many years for the railroad after leaving baseball. His obituary appeared in the paper in 1936. So Jones was missing for 123 years until Richard looked for Uriah L. Jones and Richard found him in an hour. This is a well deserved Find of the Month.
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Originally published: September 10, 2007. Last Updated: September 10, 2007.